Cryptocurrency news feb 6 2018

Bui Huu Thanh in Quang Ninh has one hectare of orchid sapling cultivation area

Lan dot bien, or mutant orchid, has become a hot keyword on online forums as people believe the flowers can help them make a fortune.

In March, two mutant orchid transactions occurred in Hung Yen province, with the value of tens of billion of dong.

In Thuan Hung commune in Khoai Chau district, six Ngoc Son Cuoc mutant orchids were sold for VND34 billion. Meanwhile, Hoi Hoa Lan Pho Hien (Pho Hien Orchid Association) in Hung Yen City reported a record deal where one orchid sold for VND40 billion.

Also in March, B.H.T, the owner of an orchid garden in Hai Phong City, said he sold 5,000 Ngoc Son Cuoc mutant orchid seedlings for VND250 billion.

T said in his 12 hectare orchid garden, there are Ngoc Son Cuoc mutant orchid species valued at VND30 billion per plant.

Prior to that, on July 2, 2020, orchid collectors were talking privately that there was an orchid called ‘Huyen thoai buom dai ngan’ (Legend of a jungle butterfly). The owner of the orchid affirmed that it did not resemble any other orchid flower.

After that, they heard that one kie (the bud arising from a tree knot) from this orchid sold for VND15 billion.

Buying frenzy

The Vietnam Seed Association affirmed that mutant orchids have not been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as an orchid species for official circulation in the market.

Prosperous businesspeople have been willing to spend hundreds of billion of dong to buy mutant orchids, and many households have mortgaged their land, houses and assets to borrow money from banks to trade mutant orchids.

However, they have tasted bitterness because of their dream of getting rich from the charming flowers.

“I was tricked. I spent VND10 billion to buy mutant orchids. But the flowers are violet. Real mutant orchids must have a white jade color,” Nguyen Van Su from Vinh Phuc told Lao Dong newspaper.

The money Su used to buy the orchids came from loans from banks and relatives.

Su tried and failed to contact the gardeners he bought orchids from, including B.N in Chuong My, H.C in Hoai Duc, L.B.D in Dong Nai province, T.V.T and T.V.D in Hoa Binh.

The dozens of orchid plants Su bought were priced between VND70 million and VND1 billion.

On April 12, the community of orchid collectors was stirred up by the news that the owner of a mutant orchid garden in Ung Hoa district in Hanoi had fled with VND200 billion.

T is one of the victims of the gardener. N.H.P, 30, the younger brother of T, told reporters that T had a good business which brought VND3-5 billion a year. However, he later decided to “play big” by cooperating with C, the gardener.

Under the agreement between them, C provided mutant orchids to T for sale. However, T found that the orchids were not mutant. He then had to sell his car and land to pay his debts.

How did this begin?

In September 2020, the Di Linh district Police arrested Bui Van Sy, born in 1986 in Hoa Binh province. He was detained for four months in an investigation over the fraudulent act of selling mutant orchids, appropriating about VND2 billion.

In December 2020, the Tan Son district Police prosecuted and detained Bui Van Diep, 24, Dinh Van Do, 21, and Dinh Van Su, 31, from Hoa BInh province for swindling and appropriating citizens’ assets.

The three men had separated real mutant orchid flowers and attached them to normal orchid plants with glue and sold them as mutant orchids. They had appropriated VND1 billion by the time they were discovered.

More recently, on January 14, the Yen Thuy district Police detained Ta Thi Suoi Van, 29, and prosecuted her for selling counterfeit mutant orchids via social networks.

Van admitted that she had sold orchids that were not really ‘mutant’. Within one month, Van had earned VND4.6 billion from selling counterfeit orchids.

Lt. Gen. Nguyen Hai Trung, Director of Hanoi Police, on April 13 confirmed that the city’s agencies had received many complaints related to the trading of counterfeit mutant orchids.

Meanwhile, State Bank of Vietnam’s Hoa Binh Branch told commercial banks to tighten control over loans related to mutant orchids.

What do scientists say?

The Vietnam Seed Association affirmed that mutant orchids have not been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as an orchid species for official circulation in the market.

Tran Duy Quy, former director of the Institute of Agricultural Genetics, said there are about 35,000 orchid species in the world, including over 1,000 in Vietnam. Mutant orchids are very rare.

He said that the transactions of orchids valued at tens of billion of dong are “abnormal”. He said that people who have deep knowledge about orchids and planting techniques are aware of the difficulties in mutant orchid care and multiplication.

Regarding the value of mutant orchids, Dang Van Dong, deputy director of the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute, said there has been no scientific research affirming the medicinal effects or other uses of the plant.

In other words, the inflated prices of mutant orchids is just based on growers’ personal sense of beauty and rarity.

In many cases, the mutant orchids that people see in reality or in images are not genetic variations, but are just genetic recombinations.

La Thanh

After two years of implementing the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the use of the deal to generate benefits for the economy and businesses has remained modest, according to insiders.

Among 14 free trade agreements (FTAs) Vietnam has signed, the CPTPP is a new generation FTA with high standards and the highest level of facilitation. Vietnam has been forecast to be one of the members that benefits the most from the deal.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

However, the country has experienced challenges in optimising the FTA because of its modest level of development and competitiveness. Due to US-China trade tensions and the impact of COVID-19, the global economy fell into crisis last year with interrupted supply chains. Vietnam also suffered an economic downturn. Therefore, after two years of implementation, the benefits from the CPTPP are still to be seen. Vu Tien Loc, President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that positive results in the two years of implementation include the reform of institutions and administrative procedures. Explaining the modest benefits so far, Loc said major reasons include the poor competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises, market instability, and the low capacity of State agencies. Meanwhile, Nguyen Cam Trang, Vice Director of the Import-Export Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the CPTPP has helped promote Vietnam’s exports. However, its market share and export growth to the six partners that have implemented the CPTPP have been low. She noted that Vietnam’s market share is 3.1 percent in Japan, 1.9 percent in Australia, 1.6 percent in New Zealand, 1.3 percent in Mexico, 1.1 percent in Canada, and 1 percent in Singapore. Growth in exports to CPTPP markets was 12.2 percent in 2018, 13 percent in 2019, and 12.02 percent in 2020, Trang added. She said that, in the future, State agencies should enhance their capacity to implement the CPTPP while continuing to complete legal policies, strengthen communications regarding the deal, support macro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to improve their capacity, encourage investment in material production, and design measures to reduce logistics costs. Businesses should also be more active in seeking opportunities from the deal, while changing their mindset and exploring demand in CPTPP markets to design suitable business strategies and plans, she added. A survey by VCCI showed that about three-quarters of businesses said they will adjust their business plans to optimise the opportunities from the CPTPP and other FTAs.

As some YouTube content creators in Vietnam leech off a disabled man’s private life for views, the video platform has failed to protect him and his loved ones against such cyberbullying.

Pham Huu Tho, 36, was born with limb defects and later acquired hearing loss that caused his career options to dwindle.

In 2017, he took his first shot at selling goods online – a job that Tho soon knew was most suited to him because it did not discriminate against his disabilities.

By 2018, Tho had already made enough to pay his bills thanks to the explosion of online shopping in Vietnam.

It was also through the Internet that Tho met his future girlfriend Pham Thanh Hoa in 2019, when she was a factory worker who ran a small online business as a side job.

Hoa would source her goods from Tho, and frequent chatting between them eventually led the couple to fall in love.

After introducing Hoa to his family in the southern beach city of Vung Tau, Tho decided to relocate to Hanoi with the girlfriend so they could move in together.

Their relationship was not one without hindrances: Tho’s family members vocally opposed them getting married out of fear Hoa was only using him for money.

They could not wrap their heads around how an able-bodied woman would want to spend the rest of her life with a disabled man.

Tho disagreed, maintaining that he was not any richer than Hoa for such an argument to make sense.

Things would have stayed an internal family feud had it not been for some dozen YouTube channels who saw the forbidden love as perfect material for click-baiting videos.

At first, Tho agreed to answer questions from some visitors who said they wanted to put his love story online.

Then, droves of other so-called content creators jumped on the bandwagon and digged deeper into Tho and Hoa’s private struggles to win approval from his family.

Each had their own take on the matter, including those attacking Tho for ‘disobeying’ his parents.

Slanders and insults were common among the thousands of comments posted under each video.

Whenever Tho spoke up about his desire for love, respect, and the ability to travel, he would be met with a barrage of online attacks for turning his back on his own family to pursue a lover.

Some YouTubers even came to his parents for interviews and published all of their ‘reveals’ on the online platform, without any regard for Tho and Hoa’s privacy.

Pham Huu Tho (left) and his girlfriend Pham Thanh Hoa are seen in this provided photo.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Tho mentioned the ‘respect’ he has received from his girlfirend.

“She talks a lot and shares with me many of her happy stories, and about everywhere she goes and anything she does,” Tho spoke of his girlfriend.

“I’m more than 35 years old, and I have every right to love and my own choice.”

Recently, some YouTube personalities even published videos in which they threatened to hire thugs to abduct Tho and bring him back to his parents’ house.

Tho and Hoa said they are now afraid to even step out of their house, fearing for their lives.

Tho said heartwarming support they receive from some netizens have been inconsequential compared to the amount of hate being unleashed upon the couple, which often reduces Hoa to tears.

“I only wish for a peaceful and normal life like others,” Tho said.

“What can YouTube and relevant authorities do for those like us?”

Would YouTube step in?

YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content “promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on their intrinsic attributes, including a disability.

However, to what extent YouTube goes to curb content that violates this policy remains a question.

“YouTube does remind people that behind the target of every video or comment is a real person,” Xuan Minh writes for Tuoi Tre.

“Then why does it allow a multitude of channels to monetize by spreading hatred, and even ‘recommend’ similar videos with thousands of views?

“YouTube and its content creators make money off of views and advertisements, so the tolerance or even encouragement of content promoting hate speech targetting disabled members of society, Tho’s case being an example, goes to show that many parties are violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines and degrading others for profit.”

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